Gosselin: Chip Kelly could revamp NFL offenses

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Steve Spurrier possessed one of the most creative offensive minds the college game has ever seen.

But his Fun ’n’ Gun offense at Florida didn’t transfer very well to the NFL. He quit the Washington Redskins in 2003, two years into his five-year, $25 million contract. Fun ’n’ Gun became Fun ’n’ Fizzle for Spurrier with a 12-20 NFL record and an offense that could neither run nor pass against bigger, faster defenders than he ever saw in the SEC.

But Chip Kelly … now he could be a different story.

Kelly lit up college scoreboards like few before him at Oregon these last six seasons — the first two as offensive coordinator and the last four as head coach. The Ducks ranked in the NCAA’s top 10 in rushing all six seasons and the top 10 in offense and scoring five times apiece.

His offensive prowess attracted the Philadelphia Eagles, who are paying Kelly $32.5 million over the next five years to restore the franchise as a playoff contender.

But it’s not his scheme necessarily that makes Kelly’s hire so intriguing. It’s the pace of his offense.

The Ducks play fast-break basketball on a football field. They like operating out of a shotgun, no-huddle, three-wide formation. They wear out defenses with their pace.

The NFL saw a semblance of this offense in the past.

The Buffalo Bills ran the K-Gun during their Super Bowl heyday with Jim Kelly, Thurman Thomas and three wides (Andre Reed, James Lofton and Don Beebe). Huddles were few so defenses didn’t have time to substitute. At their speediest, the Bills were snapping the ball an average of 68 times per game. The league average then was 59.

Last season with Tom Brady operating out of the shotgun, New England pressured defenses to stay in their base or nickel sets because there wasn’t time for situational substitutions. The Patriots led the NFL in offense and scoring, snapping the ball an average of 74 times per game. The league average was 64.

Now here comes Kelly, whose Ducks averaged almost 83 snaps per game last season. And that was against college teams that could suit up 70 players. There were always fresh legs on the sideline. But the NFL suits up only 46 players on Sundays.

Success by Kelly with this hurry-up offense could force NFL teams to re-evaluate their game day rosters. The days of suiting up all those extra offensive skill players could be over.

You’d better have extra numbers on defense. The pro game is faster and more physical than the college game. If you ask your 11 defensive starters to play 80-plus snaps per game, there will be injuries and fatigue. So suiting up extra linemen, linebackers and cornerbacks could become critical in the second half of games.

The other interesting element about the Kelly offense is that the key component is the running back, not the quarterback. The quarterback will have read options, but there’s no rule that says he must be either a great passer or great runner to operate in this offense.

Kelly has produced a top-10 offense with a quarterback who was primarily a passer (Darron Thomas), another who was primarily a runner (Jeremiah Masoli) and another who was equally adept at both (Marcus Mariota).

Dennis Dixon, Kelly’s first quarterback at Oregon, and Mariota, his last, both finished in the top 10 in the NCAA in passing efficiency.

But the dynamic element of this offense is the running back. LaMichael James led the NCAA in rushing twice for the Ducks (2010-11), Kenjon Barner finished in the top five (fourth in 2012), Jonathan Stewart in the top 10 (seventh in 2007).

The Ducks space a defense out with formation, motion players to create manpower mismatches, then capitalize with play-action and read-option to freeze defenders.

Everything is fast about this offense — the pace, the runners, the reads. Even the passes. Kelly wants the ball out of his quarterback’s hands inside of two seconds. That can neutralize the best pass rushes. Thomas, the passer, was sacked only nine times in 2010 and 11 times in 2011.

The NFL has already informed Kelly he will get no help from game officials with his offense: Don’t expect the officials to hurry spotting the ball because your offense is in a hurry. Kelly has said he’s OK with that. Whatever the speed limit the NFL allows, Kelly and the Eagles will push it.

If Kelly can snap the ball 80 times per game in the NFL, Baylor’s Art Briles, SMU’s June Jones and Texas A&M’s Kevin Sumlin could get the next calls from the NFL. They also run explosive, fast-paced offenses on Saturdays. Kelly has the chance to open the door for them on Sundays.

Follow Rick Gosselin on Twitter at @RickGosselinDMN.

Kelly’s high-flying Ducks

A look at Chip Kelly’s Oregon offenses since 2007, listing national rankings in four categories, plus their plays-per-game averages and team records:

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About Rick Gosselin

MOST UNFORGETTABLE EXPERIENCE ON THE JOB:
Sitting at the hotel bar with Jerry Jones that night in Orlando, Fla., in March 1994 when he decided he'd had enough of Jimmy Johnson as coach of the Cowboys.

SOMETHING PEOPLE DON'T KNOW ABOUT ME:I played hockey for a media all-star team in Detroit and once scored a goal against the Detroit Red Wings Old-Timers in a charity game at Olympia. As a high school player, I once scored a hat trick in a game at the Olympia. Love those "Original Six" buildings.

IF I HAD TWO SPARE HOURS, I WOULD:Take a golf lesson and learn how to hit a driver.

MOST MEMORABLE SPORTING EVENT I'VE COVERED:Impossible to pick just one, so I'll give you five, in no particular order:
- 1, My first Super Bowl - X between the Cowboys and Steelers.
- 2, 1983 NCAA basketball championship game between North Carolina State and Houston.
- 3, 1984 Orange Bowl between Miami and Nebraska.
- 4, 1971 baseball All-Star Game in Detroit, where all the future Hall of Famers homered and Reggie Jackson banged one off the light tower.
- 5, Speedskater Bonnie Blair's world-record sprints at 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary.
- Honorable mention: Troy Aikman's first college start as a freshman at Oklahoma against Kansas. (He lost.)

Hometown: Detroit

Education: Graduated from Michigan State in 1972, then spent two years working news for United Press International in Detroit, two years working for UPI sports in New York, nine years working as UPI's Midlands sports editor in Kansas City, four years as Chiefs/NFL beat reporter for the Kansas City Star, two years as Cowboys writer for The Dallas Morning News and 12 years as the NFL writer for The News.